Keen for Beans

Beans and pulses get a bad reputation, but in our current climate and cost-of-living crisis, we think that it’s time to give peas a chance! Our campaign ‘Keen for Beans’ is all about breaking down barriers and misconceptions people might hold about eating pulses, to encourage people to try out the endless pulse-abilities of bean, pea, and pulse recipes.

Endless pulse-abilities:

Pulses come in all kinds of incredible shapes, sizes, and colours. There are thousands of varieties of pulses grown across the world, and they are one of humankind’s staple food groups, having fed people globally for millennium. Moreover, they are one of nature’s cheapest superfoods. Not only do pulses have a low price tag, but they also have incredible environmental and health benefits.

They are a food of the future, providing taste, nutrition, cost and climate benefits, which is why we think pulses have a place on everyone’s plates. Be it for health, financial, or environmental reasons, we invite you to read through our pulse myth-busters, check out our recipes, and start getting creative with pulses.

Thank you to Sustainable Food Places for funding this campaign as part of the Food for the Planet Campaign Grant.

Ap-pea-ling  recipes

We have a huge variety of tasty and easy-to-follow pulse recipes on our website. Check out all the recipes here. If you don’t have access to cooking facilities, or are worried about the cost of cooking, have a look at our eating well with limited equipment recipes, which suggests nutritious recipes that can be made only with kettles, toasters, or a slow cooker.

How you bean?

What kind of a bean-eater are you – keen for beans, or gentle on the lentils? Take our quiz to find out what kind of bean-eater you are, and get a selection of recommended recipes depending on your results.

Peas Please!

Ever wanted to try your hand at growing pulses? Lots of pulses and beans can be grown in the UK – from the humble garden pea and broad bean, to the more adventorous chickpea. Our monthly growing tips give you advice for growing vegetables – including peas and beans – in Brighton soil. Keep checking back, as we plan to expand this section to include more tips about growing pulses.

Get keen for beans:

Can you do one of the following to get involved in the Keen for Beans campaign?

1) Try out a new pulse recipe – and share it with your loved ones if you like it!
2) Try out a new recipe with a pulse that you have never tried before
3) Try substituting pulses for some or all of the meat in a recipe
4) Take a picture of your favourite pulse-based meal and upload it to social media. Don’t forget to tag us @btnhovefood, and use the hashtag #keenforbeans
5) Share information about the Keen for Beans campaign on your social media

Even keener for beans?

We’ve compiled a list of resources below that delve further into the topic of pulses, looking in more detail and complexity and the environmental, health, and social impacts of pulses.  Check it out for some interesting and insightful information.

Anything is pulse-able – a campaign from Eating Better, an alliance of 60+ UK-wide food and farming organisations, providing recipes, infographics, and information about pulses.

Could the answer to the world’s problems be the humble bean? TABLE video collaboration with BBC Ideas that highlights just how beans might help solve our interconnected problems.

We’ve bean thinking…

Check out our myth-busters below for everything you need to know about how to cook, prepare, and buy pulses.

Frequently Asked Questions about beans & pulses

  • What is the difference between a bean, a pulse, and a legume?

    You might have heard lots of different terms before, such as bean, pulse, and legume, in reference to things such as chickpeas, lentils, and beans. We are here to break down the lingo! 

    Legume: Legumes are a family of flowering plants, consisting of over 20,000 varieties. Lentils, beans, and peas, all belong to the legume family. Legumes refers to the plant as a whole – the flower, the stem, and the edible seed.

    Pulse: A pulse is the edible seed from a legume, and is probably the form you’re most familiar with – a pea is a pulse, as is a bean, a lentil, a chickpea.  

    Bean: Beans are a type of legume, as are lentils and peas. A bean is the edible seed from the bean plant that you eat. Baked beans, for example, are haricot beans cooked in tomato sauce. 

    Lentil: Lentils are the dried seed of the lentil plant. The seeds are always dried before serving, and very small – which is why they don’t need soaking. They come in lots of different colours – red, brown, and green being the most common. 

    Peas: Peas are a type of legume, as are beans and lentils. The difference is largely just in shape – peas are round whilst beans vary in shape. 

    Split peas: Split peas are just a pea that has been dried, with the outer skin removed. The remaining pea is split in half. 

  • How do I buy them?

    You can either buy pulses ready-to-eat in tins, or you can buy them dried and will need to soak them before cooking them.

    Tinned pulses are convenient and still relatively cheap, but buying dried pulses is a very cost-efficient way to cook them.

    Dried pulses are cheaper than tinned pulses – 100g of tinned chickpeas costs around 21p per 100g, whilst dried chickpeas cost around 16p per 100g. Dried beans are also lighter to carry and take up less space than tins.

    However, both provide you with nutritional and affordable food. 

  • How do I prepare dried pulses?

    Most pulses, apart from lentils, need soaking before serving. To do this, you just put them in a pan and cover with plenty of water and leave them overnight (or for 6-8 hours).

    Once you’re ready to cook them, just boil them (you can use the same water) on the hob over medium heat until they are soft, and then turn the heat down and simmer them, and use them in your recipe as specified.

    Many people like to add spices and herbs to their dried pulses in the soaking process, as it can be a way to add flavour to your pulses.

  • How do I cook with tinned pulses?

    Tinned pulses do not need soaking – you can just add them into your recipe as required.

  • Why do I need to soak dried pulses?

    Soaking dried pulses overnight reduces the amount of time needed to cook the beans.  

  • What are the health benefits of beans?

    Eating beans counts as one of your 5-a-day and they are full of vitamins and minerals. They are one of the cheapest and most accessible sources of protein and fibre in the world.

    As high-fibre foods, they are also very filling, presenting an inexpensive way to eat nutritionally.

    They are glutenfree, making them suitable for Coeliacs, and are suitable for plant-based diets too. As foods high in iron, they complement plant-based diets well. 

  • What is good about high-fibre and high-iron food?

    Iron helps transport oxygen throughout the body, improving circulation. This increases the quality of your breath, which helps you feel more healthy and awake.

    Fibre binds toxins and cholesterol in the gut, at the same time increasing stool volume, which helps your body flush toxins and cholesterol from the body.  

  • Are pulses safe for people with diabetes?

    Yes! Whilst pulses contain carbohydrates, they don’t cause a sharp rise in blood glucose levels, unlike other high-carb containing foods. In fact, the mixture of protein and high fibre in pulses slows down the breakdown of the carbohydrates into glucose in the blood.

    People with diabetes often find pulses don’t cause big spikes in their glucose levels, especially if the portions are not too big, but you should consult a health professional for specific advice around this, as there is no one-size-fits-all approach. 

  • Do pulses cause flatulence?

    Pulses contain some carbohydrates that are indigestible for humans. These sugars are quickly fermented by gut bacteria, which is what causes wind. This process differs from person to person – some are more susceptible to gas than others. There is research that suggests that this fermentation can promote better gut health, and beans provide a plethora of other health benefits.

    Washing and soaking beans (as you would do anyway when cooking with dried beans) can help wash away some of these indigestible carbohydrates, reducing the amount of wind produced.

    If you are new to eating pulses, introducing them slowly to your diet can help your gut adjust, which will reduce the levels of wind created. 

  • Are pulses good for the environment?

    Yes! Pulses are one of the most sustainable crops that a farmer can grow.

    This is because they use much less water than other plants. It takes 43 gallons of water to produce one pound of pulses, compared with 368 gallons of water to produce the same amount of peanuts. It takes a whopping 800 – 1800 gallons of water to produce 1lb of meat!

    Moreover, pulses actually improve soil quality, by adding nitrogen to the soil. Nitrogen is crucial in sustaining soil health. All this means that pulses have one of the lowest carbon footprints of any food group.

  • Can I grow my own pulses?

    The climate in the UK isn’t generally suited to growing pulses such as lentils, however we do have a great climate for growing beans such as runner beans, broad beans, borlotti beans, and of course peas.

    Check out our food growing tips here for more advice on growing food in Brighton & Hove.

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